The Teaching Resources Collection, or TRC, is one of the Library's special collections (for others see the Special Collections tab above) and we are proud to be able to say that it is one of the best of its kind in the country. Close to the Library entrance, the TRC is home to around 24,000 resources for primary and secondary trainee teachers, students intending to work (or already working) in educational settings, and students of children's literature. That said, all BGU students are welcome to make use of the facility and it is open all of the hours that the Library is open.
The space is split into two areas - teachers' resources on the left and children's resources on the right. The overall design is intended to facilitate browsing, quiet study and group discussion.
Please see the Children's Literature LibGuide or take a look at The Four Corners, a newsletter produced by the Literature and Literacies (LiLi) research unit. It provides regular information about children's literature in the TRC.
Children's Resources: These include picture books, fiction and non-fiction books, big books (fiction and non-fiction), dual language books, feature films, audiobooks, resource packs, artefact boxes, novelty books, puppets, Storysacks® and journals. At its heart is an extensive collection of classic and contemporary children's literature. All major authors and illustrators are represented, demonstrating the development of children's literature over many decades. Though the emphasis is on British literature there is a good selection of American fiction, world fiction and books translated into English from other languages. Poetry books and fairy tales also feature.
Teachers' Resources: These support teachers and trainee teachers in developing lesson plans and teaching strategies to implement the National Curriculum. The collection includes National Curriculum documents, government reports, reading and phonic schemes, educational textbooks, teaching handbooks and lesson planning guides. All of the teachers' resources are for reference only, allowing students to compare and contrast different educational materials.
Our comprehensive collection of picture books is located at the far end of the TRC. The books have yellow spine labels and are shelved in alphabetical order by the authors' surname. The spine labels display the first three letters of the author's surname.
In the Show & Tell area you will find big books and novelty books. Big picture books are shelved the same way as standard picture books; with yellow spine labels and in alphabetical order by author. Big non-fiction books have green spine labels and are shelved by their Dewey shelfmark. Novelty books (tactile, pop-up etc) are normally kept in zipper bags and are shelved A-Z by the first three letters of the author's surname.
All picture, big and novelty books can be borrowed for 12 weeks at a time.
All of the resources in the TRC are shelved using the Dewey Decimal Classification System. For a summary of the Dewey shelfmarks used both in the children's resources area and the teachers' resources area of the TRC click on the pdf documents below.
Below is a summary of the main Dewey shelfmarks for children's fiction:
| Fiction classes | Subject | |
| 813 | North American Fiction | |
| 821 | Poetry | |
| 821.08 | Collected Poems | |
| 821.3 | Nursery Rhymes | |
| 822 | Plays | |
| 823 | UK Fiction | |
| 823.01 | Early Readers | |
| 823.08 | Collected Stories | |
| 828 | Treasuries | |
| 833 | German Fiction | |
| 839 | Scandinavian Fiction | |
| 843 | French Fiction | |
| 896 | African Fiction | |
| 899 | Australian Fiction |
The shelfmarks of novels by specific writers are always followed by the first three letters of their surname, for example 823 ROW for J.K. Rowling or 813 COL for Suzanne Collins.
The following example shows how a book by Michael Morpurgo would normally be classified using Dewey:
800 = Literature
820 = English Literature
823 = English Fiction
Books by Michael Morpurgo are therefore located at shelfmark 823 MOR.
All materials in the TRC are searchable via WorldCat. By looking in the Location column in an item record you will see where the resource is kept and how long you can borrow it for. For example, children's novels have the location Main Library Teaching Resources Collection: Children's Resources - 12 Week Loan.
Teachers' resources are for reference only and are shelved using the same Dewey classification scheme used in the rest of the Library.
Most Children's resources can be borrowed for 12 weeks. Storysacks® cannot be borrowed. DVDs and artefact boxes can be borrowed for 3 weeks at a time. Most children's books have a green spine label. Teenage fiction books have a white spine label. Picture books have a yellow spine label. Children's resources are shelved using a simplified version of the Dewey Decimal classification scheme used in the rest of the Library.
All of the following non-book materials are kept in the Show & Tell area of the TRC.
Our comprehensive collection of audiobooks and film adaptations of children's books can be borrowed for 3 weeks at a time.
Our popular collection of Storysacks® is for reference only. However, all of our hand puppets and finger puppets can be borrowed for 12 weeks at a time.
Artefact boxes can be borrowed for 3 weeks at a time and resource packs for 12 weeks at a time.
All images ©Bishop Grosseteste University.